Swivel bumper



July 28, 1936. H. c. DYE

SWIVEL BUMPER Filed Feb 5, 1936 INVENTOR ATTORNEY.$

Patented July 28, 1936 UNITED STATES PAT FFlCE 6 Claims.

My invention relates to swivels employed in oil well drilling rigs, and has particular reference to a bumper or guard which may be employed upon a swivel of such character as to prevent unnecessary wear thereof, or unnecessary wear upon parts. of the oil well rig or tools which are hung adjacent to the swivel.

In drilling oil wells with the rotary method, it is the common practice to suspend the drill pipe or casing, or other parts which are to be rotated in the well-hole, upon a swivel joint which is in turn suspended upon a suitable bail secured to a hook which is in turn suspended from the crown block tackle. b

- By reason of such suspending mechanism the drill pipe or casing may readily be rotated during the drilling or connecting up operations, while the body of these parts is suspended upon the block and tackle mechanism, permitting the same to be readily raised and lowered. To facilitate the placing of additional sections of drill pipe casing, tubing, etc., in the well, it is the common practice to also hang upon this hook an elevator by which such pipe, tubing or casing is raised and lowered into position in the well, such elevator being swung out of theway of the swivel during the actual drilling operations.

The elevator, when swung out of the way, is allowed to merely hang from the hook and allowed to merely rest against the side of the swivel joint. During the drilling operations considerable motion is given to the swivel so that the elevator, instead of resting stationarily against the swivel, is in fact vibrated to a considerable extent, thus causing those parts of the elevator or'its bails which contact the swivel, to become worn.

It is, therefore, an object of my invention to provide a shock-absorbing rest for the swivel joint which shall act as a buffer or bumper against which the elevator .or its bails may rest, such bumper or bufier being constructed to facilitate, or miminize, the vibrations or shocks given to the elevator and thus miminize or eliminate the unnecessary wear of the elevator while it isidle.

' Another object of the invention is to provide a buffer or bumper upon a drilling swivel which --will extend from the swivel to a suflicient distance to constitute a shock-absorbing rest against which either the elevator itself or thebails upon which the elevatoris supported may rest and which will absorb the movements of the swivel and the elevator relative to each other to minimize or eliminate wearing thereof.

Another object of the, invention is to provide a relatively inexpensive buffer or bumper which can be interposed between the elevator and swivel and which may be readily replaced when worn to thus avoid the necessity of replacing worn parts of the swivel or elevator.

other objects and-advantages will beapparent from a study of the following specifications, read in connection with the accompanying drawing,

wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of a swivel and elevator supported upon a hook and having my shock-absorbing buffer secured. upon the swivel to absorb the vibrational shocks of the elevator;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a modified form of my buffer which may be employed as a substitute for the bufler shown in l; and

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, taken through the shock-absorber and its mounting means shown in Fig. 2.

As will be readily understood by those skilled in the art.oi oil well practice, a drill pipe I is employed for drilling the well bore which drill pipe isarranged to be rotated by suitable rotary drilling mechanism, not shown. During the drilling operation the drill pipe I must be supported above the hole and lowered gradually thereinto, as the 20 boring operation proceeds. Also it is necessary to force drilling fiuid and washing fluid down through the drill pipe during the drilling operations. To support the drill pipe during the drilling operations and to allow the read injection of the drilling fluid, the drill pipe 8 is secured to a rotating portion 2 of a swivel 3, which swivel is provided with trunnions d upon opposite sides thereof to engage the eyes 5 of a bail t which passes over a hook I supported from the crown block tackle. The drilling fluid is introduced into the upper'end 8 of the swivel 3 through a goose- .neck 9 to which-a flexible hose Ill is coupled.

As will also be understood by those skilled in the art, the swivel ll, being suspended from the hook I, has considerable lateral motion during the drilling operations, causing it to move through considerable distances as the drill pipe I In order to facilitate the insertion of new'drill 'is rotated. l

pipe casing, or the like, an elevator it is employed adapted, as will be understood by those skilled-in the art, to encircle and grip sections of drill pipe or casing to permit the same to be ,elevated to positions above the drill hole and to be raised or lowered relative thereto. Ordinarily this elevator II is suspended from the same hook I as'supports the swivel 3 and during such times vator is not being actively used it is allowed to hang from the hookl and to rest against the swivel 3. The'elevator II is supported upon a as the elepair of links I2 and i3 having relatively large eyes it which engage the hook I.

The elevator H has considerable weight as also swivel 3 a condition arises in whichany vibration or'movement of the elevator tends to vibrate the elevator and its links. causing relatively large-massesot materials to bemounded'against-M of the elevator or its appurtenances.

the swivel 3 causing wear either upon the swivel 3 or upon such parts of the elevator or its links as contact the swivel or its supporting bail. In fact the chief cause of wear on the elevators and their links is this vibration and pounding of the elevator and its-links against the swivel during the time the drilling operations are taking place. I propose to prevent this unnecessary wear on the elevator and its links and to avoid the wearing of the swivel 3 by providing a relatively inexpensive buifer on the swivel against which the elevator or its links may rest, the bufler being preferably constructed of an elongated body member of some resilient and preferably metallic material. A convenient form of such buffer is illustrated herein as including a cylindrical body member l5 of rubber or similar nonmetallic material, the cylinder being preferably supported upon a pin it which extends longitudinally through the cylinder and which pin is preferably secured to the swivel by some means which will dispose the longitudinal axis of the cylindrical buffer body at right angles to the axis of the swivel and spaced laterally of theswivel by such distance as is necessary to prevent metal-to-metal contact between the elevator or its links and the metallic portions of the swivel. That is, I provide a buffer which will be interposed between the swivel and the elevator or other devices whichmay hang from the hook, the buffer having such dimensions as is necessary to provide a contact area of greater width than the contact portions In the prei'erredembodiment of the invention the ends of the pin l6 are carried by brackets ll which .in turn either engage'plates l8 orother suitable mounting structures which may in turn be secured atany convenient point to the swivel 3.

As is illustrated particularly in Fig. 2, certain types of swivels 3 are" formed with outstanding ears, I9 and to constitute shelves or guides against which the elevator H or its links may I bear.to prevent interference between the same and the bail 6 which supports the swivel. Such outstanding ears l9 and 20 may therefore constitute a ready support upon which the plate l8 may be secured.

It will be understood also by those skilled in the art that the primary characteristic of the buffer is that it must comprise a surface, such as the cylinder l5, having a resilient or cushioning effect against which the elevator or its links may contact, and, secondarily, it must be mounted to extend outwardly from the swivel to such distance as will hold the elevator and its links from possible contact with the metallic portion of the swivel or its supporting bail.

While I have illustrated the rubber contact piece as being formed in the shape of a cylinder,

other shapes may be employed so long as they furnish a relatively thick wall of rubber or cushioning material which will act to absorb the shocks of'movement of the swivel and elevator relative to each other. 1

While,'as is shown in Fig. 2, the elevator may be suspended in such manner that one of the. links [3 constitutes the sole contact between the elevator mechanism and the swivel mechanism,

certain types of elevator links are arranged so that normally both links contact either theswivel or its bails, thus necessitatinga relatively wide laterally from said swivel to secure said resilient vsaid body and engaging saidbrackets.

buffer surface which will be sufliciently wide to engage both of the elevator links, and for this I replacement of either of the cylinders I5a or lib,

but also'permits the interpositioning of'a central bracket llc at the midpoint of the buffer in addition to the end brackets Na and "b.

Again, it will be noted in Fig. 2, that the plate l8 of Fig. 1 has been replaced by an angle iron Ila as a mounting device for the buffer to adapt the buffer to be'secured to a.contact shoe 2| found upon certain types of swivels'ja, g It will therefore be observed that I have pro-'- vided a buffer or shock-absorbing device which may be readily mounted upon a swivel and'which will act as a buffer or cushion upon which the 20': elevator II or its bails l2 and I3 may rest, which buffer is relatively inexpensive and may be read-' ily replaced when worn at a cost far less than the cost of replacement of worn elevator links.

While I have shown and described the preferred embodiment'of my invention, I do not wish to be limited to any of the details of construction shown herein, except as defined in-the appended.

claims.

I claim:

1. In oil well drilling apparatus wherein two or more devices are supported from a single hook,; a buffer interposed between said devices to form cushioning means preventing l metal-to-metal' contact between the twodevices. 33 v 2. In oil well drilling apparatus, a swivel, a hook for suspending said swivel, an elevator also suspended from said hook, and a butler interposed between said elevator and said swivel to prevent metal-to-metal contact between said elevator and said swivel.

3. In oil well drilling apparatus, a swivel, a hook for suspending said swivel, an elevator also suspended from said hook, and a buffer interposed between said elevator and said swivel to prevent metal-to-metal contact between said elevator and said swivel, said buifer comprising a body of resilient Imaterial, and means mounting said resilient material upon said swivel to extend outwardly therefrom 'to such position as to hold said elevator out of, metal-to-metal contact with said swivel. 4. In a swivel buffer, a body of resilient mate rial, a plurality ofbrackets supporting said resilient body upon said swivel in laterally spaced relation'thereto. I J

5. In a buffer for swivels, one or more cylinders of resilient material, means mounting said cylinders. upona plurality of brackets extending body to said swivel in spaced relation thereto;

6. In a buffer for swivels, an elongated body of resilient material, and means for supporting said body on said swivel with the longitudinal axis extending at right angles and in laterally spaced relation to the axis of said swivel including afplurality of brackets extending laterally from said swivel and a pin extending longitudinally through HERBERT C. pm, 

